Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was running a little late for a Wednesday morning press conference at the Radio Deli in Burlington but then, he isn't running for office this year.

Still, when he finally arrived and called to order a meeting of what he hopes will be Vermont's congressional delegation in 2007, he sounded as much like a candidate on the stump as the other members of this years Democrats' congressional dream team --Senate candidate Bernie Sanders and House candidate Peter Welch.

Asked what he made of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's remark earlier this week that compared critics of the Iraq war to appeasers of fascists and Nazis prior to World War II, Leahy could barely contain his anger.

"I was outraged by what he had to say," fumed Leahy, his face reddening. "I wish someone in the Bush administration would read a history book." Moments later, he added, "This was pretty stupid! To suggest, as this administration does over and over again, that if people question what they’re doing, then somehow we’re unpatriotic."

Leahy also said it's become clear to him now that President Bush wanted to invade Iraq before 9/11, and that may explain why the administration diverted its attention from trying to capture Osama Bin Laden to go after Saddam Hussein instead.

Sanders said he wants the real reasons why Bush went into Iraq investigated, and vowed that will happen if Republicans no longer have "rubber stamp" control of Congress. Welch said it was an insult to the troops serving in Iraq that the Bush administration seems more interested in castigating war critics than figuring out a policy that extricates us from Iraq.

Ouch! And, oh yes, the three were all in favor of raising the federal minimum wage, the stated purpose of the press conference.

--Sam Hemingway